[Followups set to sci.bio.botany]

The wattles (_Acacia_ spp.) are sacred to the Australian public, but
were threatened with a name change because botanists had concluded
they and the African "wattles" could not co-exist in the same genus.

Following a lot of lobbying, the Spermatophyta Committee of IAPT
(International Association for Plant Taxonomy) accepted a
recommendation to conserve _Acacia_ with type species _Acacia
penninervis_ thus saving _Acacia_ for the Australian wattles.

http://www.anbg.gov.au/cpbr/taxonomy/acacia-conserved-2004.html

However, this proposal needed to be endorsed by the General Committee
of IAPT and ratified at the XVII International Botanical Congress in
Vienna (17-23 July 2005).

http://www.ibc2005.ac.at/

That Congress is now over and, according to the local grapevine here
in the deep north of the deep south, the proposal was accepted.

So, the Oz wattles remain _Acacia_. But what has happened to the
African "acacias"? The message sticks with the detail have not
arrived here as yet.

Cheers, Phred.

--
LID